What a fright I had today - Head injury

[MegGriffin]

My DD (8) was playing in her sisters bedroom and we heard an almighty crash. We rushed upstairs to find her underneath the wardrobe. She had got inside it and somehow pulled it over on top of her. As a consequence she has a golfball lump on the back of her head. She cried when it happended for quite a while and I put on a cold compress and gave her calpol. She did not lose conciousness or vomit and her mood was back to normal in a few hours although she spent the rest of the day quietly on he sofa. She went to bed without any argument as she felt tired. DO I need to be aware of anything or if it was bad would I know by now? It was such a shock I still feel shaken myself even though it was this morning. Is assume school will be ok tomorrow?

Did you check the dilation of her pupils? as she could be concussed.

No I didn't. She is asleep now. SHould I wake her up?

Concussion wouldn't affect pupil dilation -- if there was something off about pupil dilation it would suggest a (more serious) compression or fracture injury.

I probably would have taken her to A&E, personally, but if she's seemed perfectly normal since then she is probably OK. I would check on her every hour or so in bed, though, to be on the safe side.

Generally if there is a bump, there's not too much to worry about. Advise now is also not to worry if they want to go to sleep. It sounds like a nasty accident though and I think I would be inclined to take a trip to the GP's, just to be on the safe side.

Sounds like you've got it all under control and have done all the right things already.

Keep an eye out for excessive drowsiness, vomiting more than 3 times, blurred or double vision, limb weakness or seizures. I'm sure you'll probably have a quiet night and she should be fine for school tomorrow.

I feel really bad now.. I never seem to get it right. I usually over react with this sort of thing but I did not think of taking her to hospital as it only bled a tiny bit and she was not sick or lose conciousness. What about school tomorrow?

We were told to let them sleep but make sure they are rousable(sp?)every so often, we used to gently wake them, offer water or something, just to make sure

Don't stress- you've done the entirely sensible thing.

Not much point in seeing GP tomorrow or A&E unless you find something to be concerned about.

The advice about rousing gently a couple of times overnight is sound.

Thanks all. Will keep an eye on her tonight and see how she is on the morning.

We had something similar this week.
DS2 was walking to nursery with his dad and messing about, spinning in the wind when he smashed forehead first into a concrete lamppost. He had a huge egg-sized bump on his forehead and had to come home.
He was his usual self after a little while but the next night he started vomiting so I rang NHS direct and they said he needed to be checked over at A&E asap. So we rushed straight to the hospital.
It turned out he was fine but if there's any vomiting within 72 hours of the head injury you need to get her checked out.

Thankyou Lyra. I will tell the TA or teacher on the door tomorrow what happened so they know to keep an eye on her. I am glad your DS is ok now.